If you have heart or vascular disease - you may have many questions about how to stop it from progressing - or if you have a family member who has a heart condition - you may wonder - will this happen to me? It can become confusing - what foods should I eat? What should I avoid? Should I start exercising? What about supplements? What do all the risk factor and blood tests mean? Join us as we chat with Dr. Stanley Hazen, Section Head of Preventive Cardiology and Rehabilitation Director for the Center for Cardiovascular Diagnostics and Prevention, and a staff physician in the Departments of Cell Biology and Cardiovascular Medicine at Cleveland Clinic as he answers your questions about risk factors, prevention, and how to live a heart healthy life.

Dr. Stanley Hazen is the Head of the Section for Preventive Cardiology & Rehabilitation, Director for the Center for Cardiovascular Diagnostics and Prevention, and a staff physician in the Departments of Cell Biology and Cardiovascular Medicine at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation. Dr. Hazen is board certified as a Diplomat of both the American Board of Internal Medicine and the National Board of Medical Examiners. He has completed additional training in Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism. He sees patients within the Preventive Cardiology Clinic, specializing in care of patients with hyperlipidemia, diabetes and hypertension. His research interests include understanding the role of inflammation and oxidant stress in the pathogenesis of atherosclerosis and other inflammatory diseases. He is an expert in mechanisms of atherosclerosis, acute coronary syndromes and heart disease. His basic research interests also include the biochemistry of leukocyte peroxidases, free radicals and reactive oxygen species and mechanisms of oxidative damage.

Dr. Hazen has published over 150 peer-reviewed articles, invited reviews and book chapters in the fields of atherosclerosis, oxidation and inflammation chemistry, and cardiovascular biomarkers. He has received many honors and awards for his research work, which has contributed to new understandings of inflammation in cardiovascular disease, and the development of new diagnostic and treatment tools. He is listed as a co-inventor on multiple patents for his work in identifying patients at increased risk for cardiovascular disease and has successfully applied discoveries in human clinical investigations toward the development of new FDA approved tests that are now available for evaluation of patients presenting with a history of chest pain, and expedite triaging of patients as part of clinical practice. He has been principal investigator on numerous National Institutes of Health grant supported research projects related to his specialty interests.

He serves as reviewer for more than 20 scientific journals including Nature Medicine, Nature Structural and Molecular Biology, Journal of the America Medical Association, Circulation, Analytical Biochemistry, Journal of Clinical Investigation, Journal of Biological Chemistry and the Journal of Lipid Research. Dr Hazen serves on the editorial board of Circulation, the Journal of Biological Chemistry and Free Radicals in Biology & Medicine. He has been invited to lecture at national and international symposia and conferences, including workshops held by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institutes (National Institutes of Health) on mechanisms of atherogenesis, pulmonary immunobiology and inflammation, the origins of asthma, and nitric oxide biology.

Dr. Hazen has been the recipient of numerous prestigious awards. He has been elected into both the American Society of Clinical Investigation and the Association of American Physicians. In February of 2008 he was elected as Fellow into the American Association for the Advancement of Sciences. Additional awards received by Dr Hazen include receipt of a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Physician Research Fellowship Award, the 2007 Jeffrey M Hoeg Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis and Vascular Biology Award for Basic Science and Clinical Research, the Marilyn Hansen American Thoracic Society Award, the Gill Heart Institute Physician Scientist Award, and the John J. Ferchill Award for Innovation.

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